Protesters to Test Thai Junta, No Vote for Over A Year

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Protesters will test Thai coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha this weekend after he said there would be no elections in Thailand for more than a year to give the military time to engineer reforms.

Prayuth ousted the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on May 22 after months of sometimes violent protests. The general set out a plan for reconciliation and reform late on Friday in a televised address to the nation.

Reforms could only be implemented if there was peace and stability and would take about a year, he said. After that, elections would be held.

"All that I have outlined will not succeed if all sides do not cease demonstrating politically," General Prayuth Chan-ocha said. "This process will take approximately a year, depending on the situation,", Reuters reported the Thai military leader as saying.

Thailand has become polarised between supporters of Yingluck and her influential brother, deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and the royalist establishment that sees Thaksin and his populist ways as a threat to the old order.

Thaksin's appeal among poorer voters, especially in the populous, rural northeast and north, has ensured that he or his allies have won every election since 2001.

Prayuth justified his takeover and the tough measures he introduced afterwards, which have included the detention of about 250 people, censorship of the media and a ban on gatherings. Most of those detained have been freed.

"We cannot keep fighting each other just because we think differently," said Prayuth. "Every side must find a way to cooperate."

Despite martial law and a ban on gatherings, small protests against the military takeover have been held almost daily in Bangkok. There has been no serious violence.

For a second day on Friday, soldiers mounted a big operation at the central Victory Monument, sealing it off and preventing anyone from gathering. Sometimes rowdy crowds had faced off with soldiers and police at the Bangkok landmark earlier in the week.

Activists, spreading word through social media, say they will hold a big show of opposition on the weekend, to press for the restoration of democracy.